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Thread: Any Beach Boys Fans?

  1. #1
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    Any Beach Boys Fans?

    I know some members of Genesis are, as well as Paul McCartney. What about anybody on this site? I have the cd version of Pet Sounds with the mono and stereo versions, the albums Sunflower and Surf's Up on one cd, and the current remasters of Today and Smiley. I had previously dismissed The Beach Boys as stupid surf rock, boring pop, or slagged them for using studio musicians on their records in lieu of the band on some songs. I believe The Beach Boys from Today on to be one of the artists that laid the groundwork for "progressive rock"(some of the songs by this group sound very orchestral). What do you all think?

  2. #2
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    I wouldn't call myself a "fan," per se, but I've always like the hits. But as I've learned more about music and read more about its history, I've become more curious about their deeper tracks.

    I've only ever owned compilations, but one of these days I'm going to dive head first into their catalog and find out what they're really all about.
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

  3. #3
    LinkMan Chain's Avatar
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    No

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    Heliopolis
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    Yep. Took me a long time though.

    Hearing "Surf's Up" on a Central California radio station about 10 years ago was the catalyst.

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    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Not really, but the song Feel Flow is one of my all-time fave songs
    Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that

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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Bails View Post
    I wouldn't call myself a "fan," per se, but I've always like the hits. But as I've learned more about music and read more about its history, I've become more curious about their deeper tracks.

    I've only ever owned compilations, but one of these days I'm going to dive head first into their catalog and find out what they're really all about.
    Well, there's no time like the present since most of their titles have been recently reissued. Best Buy has the new remasters for $9.99.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by JIF View Post
    I know some members of Genesis are, as well as Paul McCartney. What about anybody on this site? I have the cd version of Pet Sounds with the mono and stereo versions, the albums Sunflower and Surf's Up on one cd, and the current remasters of Today and Smiley. I had previously dismissed The Beach Boys as stupid surf rock, boring pop, or slagged them for using studio musicians on their records in lieu of the band on some songs. I believe The Beach Boys from Today on to be one of the artists that laid the groundwork for "progressive rock"(some of the songs by this group sound very orchestral). What do you all think?
    Your reaction to them sounds like mine. I was prodded to turn around on my opinion of them when I heard “Surf’s Up.” What a gorgeous, tear-jerkingly beautiful song. Going back and hearing older songs with fresh ears (“Good Vibrations” in particular) was an eye-opening experience. I wouldn’t go so far as saying they laid the groundwork for prog, but the way they took their vocal harmony pop to new and exciting places makes their music very much worth hearing. I like a lot of their stuff and it’s unfair to dismiss them as a vapid surf novelty song mill based on their early hits.

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  8. #8
    Member saatuk's Avatar
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    I wouldn't say a 'fan', but I quite like Surf's Up and Sunflower. If I was a fan I think I would have bought a CD rather than just the vinyl, since I don't play LPs all that often.
    There's nowt so queer as folk

  9. #9
    Massive fan of Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile, SMiLE, Friends, Surf's Up and Holland....plus a few bits and pieces on Wild Honey, 20/20 and Sunflower. Have never ventured in to the late 70's albums though.

    Matt.

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    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Their post-Pet albums are spotty as all get-out, but it doesn't mean there aren't gems to be found, all the way through '72. Still, if you never really liked the band, I can't point to any one album, or song for that matter, that would win anyone over. But, if at any time you've found yourself enjoying the ratio hits but grew tired of them, then by all means, get over to YT and check out their lesser known material when they could afford the good dope.
    Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that

  11. #11
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JIF View Post
    Well, there's no time like the present since most of their titles have been recently reissued. Best Buy has the new remasters for $9.99.
    Yeah, I'm thinking it may be time to make the investment.

    Quote Originally Posted by Progbear View Post
    I wouldn’t go so far as saying they laid the groundwork for prog, but the way they took their vocal harmony pop to new and exciting places makes their music very much worth hearing.
    This is kinda what I'm hoping. I'm so in love with Moon Safari right now, I think I'd probably be very receptive to some of the BBs lesser-known stuff.

    Quote Originally Posted by 3LockBox View Post
    Their post-Pet albums are spotty as all get-out, but it doesn't mean there aren't gems to be found, all the way through '72. Still, if you never really liked the band, I can't point to any one album, or song for that matter, that would win anyone over. But, if at any time you've found yourself enjoying the ratio hits but grew tired of them, then by all means, get over to YT and check out their lesser known material when they could afford the good dope.
    This is a great idea - I always forget to use YT to explore bands. The "spottiness" is what I'm afraid of - whether I'd have the patience to separate the wheat from the chaff.
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

  12. #12
    Very hardcore fan of many eras, and I find something to love and just about every album, and listen with interest even to the stuff which is clearly not so inspired because I'm so interested by the band. The "Smile Sessions" box last year tripped off a months-long re-igniting of interest in the first fifteen years of their work, and they were all I listened to for months while I was finishing up the Wing Beat Fantastic album - I think their influence is pretty strong on that record. Of the new remasters I've only picked up the Smiley Smile reissue with the new, first-ever stereo remix - just got it a few days ago and I enjoyed the remix a whole heck of a lot.

  13. #13
    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    I've heard the SMiLE reissue and I'm afraid it was the same reaction as when I heard Pet Sounds for the first time 15 or so years ago - underwhelmed. Yes, I understand Pets had an enormous influence on a lot of music I like, but save for a few songs, I find I'm less than engaged. I even find some of it sonically objectionable.
    Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that

  14. #14
    Like some above, not a hardcore fan by any stretch. Read Wilsons bio Catch a Wave, and became extremely intrigued. I bought pet sounds, smile and listened to them with very different ears. Wilson was and still is a genius indeed. He influenced and challenged legions of musicians. Its not particularly something i go to often, but i certainly appreciate and honor the work they did. I also bought their new one as well, I dug it.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Bails View Post
    This is kinda what I'm hoping. I'm so in love with Moon Safari right now, I think I'd probably be very receptive to some of the BBs lesser-known stuff.
    I highly recommend the Sunflower/Surf’s Up 2-on-1. Except for “Got to Know the Woman” and Bruce Johnston’s dismal “Tears in the Morning,” I find Sunflower to be wall-to-wall good, arguably their best post-PS album and definitely their best album of the 70s.

    Surf’s Up is definitely more patchy, but the tunes by Carl and Brian are all superb. And “Disney Girls” is one of Bruce’s nicer tunes, high praise from me considering I generally dislike his writing (the man’s responsible for the execrable “I Write the Songs,” after all). Plus you get the title track, one of the most transcendent tunes of all time.

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    N.P.:“El absurdo y la melodía”-Ave Rock

  16. #16
    Tickets for their April 4, 2013 show @ Westbury go on sale this Saturday, November 10.

  17. #17
    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progbear View Post
    I highly recommend the Sunflower/Surf’s Up 2-on-1. Except for “Got to Know the Woman” and Bruce Johnston’s dismal “Tears in the Morning,” I find Sunflower to be wall-to-wall good, arguably their best post-PS album and definitely their best album of the 70s.

    Surf’s Up is definitely more patchy, but the tunes by Carl and Brian are all superb. And “Disney Girls” is one of Bruce’s nicer tunes, high praise from me considering I generally dislike his writing (the man’s responsible for the execrable “I Write the Songs,” after all). Plus you get the title track, one of the most transcendent tunes of all time.

    -------------
    MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

    "You can take the war out of the soldier, but you can't raise that soldier from the dead."
    --Shona Laing

    N.P.:“El absurdo y la melodía”-Ave Rock
    pretty much agree with this assessment of both albums, but would add Add Some Music To Your Day and Its About Time and keep Tears In The Morning. Not that any of its terrible. Their main missteps were attempts at social/ecological vommentary. And while Surf's Up is patchier, it does contain their most underappreciated gems like the aforementioned title track, Feel Flow, Long Promised Road and Til I Die. Disney Girls (1957) sounds like a song they would have done several years earlier and kinda doesn't fit, but isn't bad.
    Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by CybrKhatru View Post
    Yep. Took me a long time though.

    Hearing "Surf's Up" on a Central California radio station about 10 years ago was the catalyst.
    That was definitely one of the best moments in my music fandom. I'll never forget the way in which you and I sat in the car and lost our minds over it. It was one of my Edith Bunker-like moments of illumination: ".....ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
    Cargo of diamonds as you are: nothing more valuable, nothing more tough. - A. M. Beal

  19. #19
    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JIF View Post
    What do you all think?
    Pre-Pet Sounds era for me, particularly Today and Summer Days (and Summer Nights). Caught them in '66, right around the time "Good Vibrations" came out....
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

  20. #20
    Member rapidfirerob's Avatar
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    Basically, not.

  21. #21
    Yes. Only in the last few years. God Only Knows has been in my top few songs since a telling episode of that show with Kevin Arnold though. Saw them live earlier this year and was very impressed by the harmonies and the fragile beauty of the voices. The harmonic choices of Brian Wilson are what really sell it for me.

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  23. #23
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Smiley Smile is great, and even proggy too.

  24. #24
    for me i was a fan of their best tunes and not of the early albums that were very hit and miss with one hit and then 3 or4 average or junk songs. so imo they did not compare or compete with the Beatles were so much more consistently great. so I was a fan of their hits comps and maybe "pet sounds" and also the tune "good vibrations" which to me a their very best tune.

  25. #25
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Anyone who grew up listening to Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, The Hi-Los, The 4 Freshman etc. (hip parents) has to more than appreciate how Brian took those jazz harmonies and adapted them to a rock context.

    In addition to the deserved appreciation for "Surf's Up" in this thread, I have also thought at times about having "Til I Die" (a song that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it) played at my funeral (as yet unscheduled).
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

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